anniversary 15...

today marks 15 wonderful years of marriage for allie and i. it really doesn’t seem that long ago as I can recall many vivid details of the entire day. so many things have happened since then but i wouldn’t change a thing as we really do enjoy a great life together and have been blessed with 3 amazing kids.
we once had grandiose plans of returning to jamaica for our 10th anniversary. of course owen was exactly 1 week old so that was virtually impossible. it also provided the perfect cover for the fact that there was no way in hell we could have afforded it. we settled on dinner at bakers square with a couple of toddlers and a bundled up newborn in a car seat carrier. tonight the girls have dance at metro dance studio as they do every wednesday night. for anniversary #15, we plan on either sharing a pizza at “nick & willy’s” or a possible subway at the strip mall. for anniversary 20, i’m already thinking of upping the ante and maybe getting take-out from “wongs kitchen” or applebees “curb-side-to-go”. i’m sure that we will have the opportunity this weekend to maybe get dinner and\or a movie and that’s suits us just fine. we may even do a short weekend trip somewhere this spring. i can’t complain as i’m very, very lucky.
i took this opportunity to do some research. it seems as though tradition holds that anniversary # 15 has a theme of crystal and a contemporary or modern theme of watches. now i won’t be showering my spouse with delicate and ornate fine crystal trinkets or a rolex oyster perpetual but i did find a “grow your own crystals” set on amazon uk. plus, we did get some roses which as it happens, is the flower associated with your 15 year anniversary. there are no gemstones associated with anniversary 15 (whew – off the hook there). these facts should not be confused with anniversary 14 where the traditional gift is ivory, the contemporary or modern gift has a theme of gold jewelry and the flowers associated are dahlia with a gemstone of jewelry and moss agate and anniversary 16 which has no traditional them but has a modern or contemporary theme of silver holloware, no flowers and a gemstone theme of peridot and aquamarine.
happy 15th anniversary allie!